Warren develops rapid response plan for school shootings

Authorities in Warren have developed a new strategy to respond to anyone with a weapon on the loose in local schools, including creation of a rapid response team embedded with medics to provide faster medical attention for causalities.

The 9-step program was requested by Mayor James Fouts following the Dec. 14 shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Connecticut that claimed the lives of 20 children and six staff members. It is aimed at improving safety in Warren’s 43 school buildings.

“Schools are not the safe places everyone once thought,” said Fouts, a retired school teacher. “The world has changed since 9/11. It started us thinking in a different way. Sandy Hook reinforced that concept.”

The centerpiece of the plan is specialized training for all police officers and command staff that allows for a faster response to situations where a shooter has entered a school and is attacking students and teachers. Law enforcers will undergo a 16-week training program to focus on entry, hallway movement and other techniques.

Advertisement

Nine Warren fire department medics have attended the program and will be embedded with the team making entry to provide treatment of casualties. The team also has obtained floor plans, master keys and swipe cards for all schools.

Deputy Police Chief Louis Galasso said the strategy will help provide a focused plan in the event someone armed with a weapon is on the loose in one of the schools. The new plan signals a shift in strategy from waiting to responding, he added.

“To have a bunch of cop cars surround a school in one of these cases without conducting a focused rescue effort is not the way to go. It’s far more prudent to have the ability to descend on a school and execute the best rescue we can,” Galasso said.

Embedding the medics with the team makes it unique in Macomb County and gives the team a better chance to save lives, according to Warren Fire Commissioner Wilburt McAdams.

“In the event there is an incident, there will be a medical presence right there to support both the police and the victim, and even the perpetrator,” he said.

The 9-point plan includes:

* Mandated daily stops by uniformed patrol officers at schools and assigned areas to become familiar with the facilities and employees

* By mid-April, all officers and command staff will have completed a 16-week Active Shooter/Rapid Response course aimed at capturing armed threats in schools

* Nine medics who have attended the Active Shooter course will make entry with the first responders to treat wounded parties.

* Copies of all school floor plans are on file at the watch commander’s office and inside a special response team truck

* Master keys and swipe cards are stored on the truck and with watch commanders

* Numerous changes have been made to emergency plans of 15 schools following a city review

* The Special Response Team has trained at a number of schools to prepare them for a school-specific environment

* The Police Department has assisted local schools since January in 12 drills including active shooter, lockdowns, severe weather and fire.

* Police and school administrators are building relationships to ensure the best responses to emergencies.

School officials including Fitzgerald Public Schools Superintendent Barbara VanSweden have embraced the forward-thinking approach.

“It’s so important to have these conversations and see these ideas to keep people safe,” she said. “If we don’t work together, we’ll all be in trouble.